Associated Press file photoMembers of the UConn men's basketball team joke around during a recent appearance.

STORRS, Conn. – Connecticut won’t be sneaking up on anybody this season.

A year ago, UConn was picked by Big East coaches to finish 10th in the conference. They finished ninth, but then reeled off 11 straight postseason wins to capture the conference title and, oh yeah, a third NCAA title.

This year’s Huskies are picked to finish with Syracuse at the top of the Big East and to challenge to repeat as national champions.

“It’s a weird feeling because last year no one cared to watch us besides our fans, but this year we have a lot of bandwagoners on our tail now,” point guard Shabazz Napier said. “And it’s fine with me.”

The Huskies return four starters and seven players who saw significant playing time during their championship run. They also have three highly touted freshmen, including 6-foot-10 Andre Drummond, who decided to enroll just before the school year began.

Coach Jim Calhoun has said he believes this team has more talent than the 2010-11 squad.

“I do think that we’re deeper,” he said. “I do think that we have more size. We’ve got a few more answers. We don’t have one, a big one – a small one if that’s what you want to call it – Kemba.”

Kemba Walker, who left for the NBA after his junior season, accounted for 45 percent of the Huskies’ offense last season, but meant much more to the team as its leader and the player it counted on to hit clutch shot after clutch shot.

Without him, the Huskies will rely on Napier to run the offense, and Alex Oriakhi and Jeremy Lamb to pick up more of the scoring.

Lamb, who averaged over 16 points and almost five rebounds during the NCAA tournament, spent part of his summer playing for the U.S. under-19 team in the world championships, where he also averaged just over 16 points and over four rebounds.

“He’s just more confident,” Oriakhi said. “Once he’s confident, not a lot of people can guard him.”

Lamb, who earned a reputation last season as being quiet, even shy, around the media, said he plans to be much more vocal this year on and off the court.

“Being a leader is something that I’m going to have to do,” Lamb said. “Me, Shabazz, Alex, Roscoe (Smith), we’re the leaders on the team. We all went through it.”

Oriakhi said he expects the Huskies to be dominant underneath, where teams can no longer double-team him on defense because of the presence of Drummond. Players say the freshman can run the floor like a point guard, shoot the midrange jumper and post up. But can he realistically be counted on to star for the defending national champions as an 18-year-old?

“Realistically, you’ve got to see him play,” Napier said. “He’s a creature to be honest.”

The Huskies’ other two freshmen also are expected to see a lot of playing time. Ryan Boatright, an athletic 6-foot guard who won the team’s dunk contest, will back up Napier. DeAndre Daniels, who was the prize of the class before Drummond came on board, is an athletic 6-6 forward who can play the wing or inside.

“We’re going to be really good,” Daniels said. “We’ve got a lot of good guys in every position, and a great point guard – Shabazz. So, that’s the main part about it, just having a good point guard. And we’re all athletic and we get up and down and run, so we’re going to be really good.”

But Calhoun cautions that being talented and being good are two different things. He’s hoping this team is both.

“You don’t start out 11-0,” he said. “You start out zero and zero and that is what we are going to start out as.”

But as usual, it’s UConn, and there’s always something else out there, right? This past week was no different, as Drummond broke his nose and suffered a mild concussion in practice Friday, a day after rules were approved by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors that would make the Huskies academically ineligible for the 2013 NCAA tournament.